Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c36.36

c36.36

(10) Akshāvāpa—Commentators have explained it as the controller of gambling. Gambling, being under state-control, brought in revenue; but the prominence of the department is rather strange and one is inclined to doubt the meaning of the commentators. Among the officers the one who comes after Sannidhātṛi and Samāhartṛi in the Artha-Sāstra, corresponding to Nos. 8 and 9 of our list, is the Akshapaṭala or [the Department of] the. Accountant General. Thus the corresponding Akshāvāpa seems to be the officer in charge of State Accounts. The Gambling Officer will be quite out of place here. It seems that squares or Aksha were made on some board (Paṭala or Adhidevana) by the help of which accounts were in those days calculated. The Akshaśālā ( Artha-Śāstra, p. 85 ) should also be considered in this connexion. The Akshaśālā department took charge of gold and silver and the mint. Aksha in these technical offices has no connexion whatsoever with gambling.